WATER'S COOL SEDUCTION

WATER’S COOL SEDUCTION – 1999 – Oil on Canvas – 180 x 140 cm

Private Collection, New Zealand

In 1997 a film crew converged on our small village to film a wedding as part of a feature film entitled “Topless Women Talk About Their Lives”. Life in the village stopped and everyone pulled together to make “our” input into the film a success and even some, such as my wife, had speaking parts. As an artist and a member of the village for nearly twenty years I was acutely aware of the potential for exploitation that such an intrusion could effect, but as a great time was had by all, I believed that any fallout from their presence would be negated and indeed that is what happened. It did not however stop me from embarking on a conscious act of counter-exploitation whereby I coerced two of the actors into modeling for me and I eventually painted this image that compared the psychology of sensual seduction with how the crystal clarity and coolness of the water summons one on a hot tropical day.